Obeying Grandma

Grandma yelled at me (via email) for not putting pictures of Lincoln and Titus' birthday party so here they are along with some of the family.

Lincoln this morning.

Titus opening up presents on his birthday.

Birthday Cake

Snoozing...smiling.

First Bath.

I know I'm not a pretty sight, but Lincoln sure is.

Good picture of Cole. Normally he has the bad fake smile going.

Mary and her boys.

Cole is great with Lincoln.

Titus being Titus.

Another good one of Cole.

Kirsten is 30 something today!!

Okay, I don't know the exact age, and she may not want it listed. But nevertheless, our very own Kirsten Buys is celebrating a birthday. She is a wonderful part of our family.

OUR MAILING ADDRESS HAS CHANGED.

We closed our PO Box and now our mailing address is 603 Bureau Ct., Mahomet, IL 61853-9480

Mom

Cole Singing

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHRISTOPHER---WHO IS 32 today.

Happy Birthday Chris!

I can still remember when my parents brought Chris home from the adoption agency. Daniel and I were so happy...


Chris is a great brother. He is one of the funniest people I know even if I am the target of a lot of those jokes. I hope that this is a year of blessing for him.

Night at the Museum

I watched this the other day with Sepporah, and even though I didnt think it was as funny as the first one, this one part made be laugh pretty hard. It reminded me of how my brothers and I used to argue and fight. I thought it was really funny cause Ben Stiller reminds me of Daniel. I know the quality of the video isnt the best, but just watch it and enjoy. Ben Stiller is tryign to rescue his friend in an hour glass from Kaman Ra.

THIS BIRTHDAY IS NOT A MISTAKE--DANIEL IS 33 today, AUGUST 1, 2009

Ford Taurus Spot

Most of you know that I've been working at a music house. It started as an internship in January and is in the process of transitioning to a full-time job (the hours are certainly full-time). We produce music and sound design for commercials, theme park rides and sometimes film. I really love the work and the people here. My job is "composer in residence." That means I have a studio on site where I compose on as many projects that come through the door as is humanly possible, usually between 2-5 commercials a week. When I do this I compete against the company's roster of freelancers, and the competition is steep because some of these guys have been doing this for over a decade.

In the past few weeks I finally won my first two spots. One, a commercial for University of Michigan, will go into production in the fall and run during all U of M football games (probably for years to come). The other was a segment on a web campaign for the new Ford Taurus. That Taurus spot went live today online.

The Taurus spot was unusual work for me because it was longer - 80 seconds, compared to the usual 30 seconds - and was more of a score-to-picture assignment. My job was not as much to create a memorable song as to underscore the action happening in the demonstration.

Things to look for are the transitions (are they seamless, or do they draw attention to themselves?) and whether or not the different musical ideas accent the changes in energy throughout. Also, the sound design was done in house as well by a guy named Jeff, who is amazing at what he does and has become a good friend. He also played the electric guitar on my spot.

Here is the link. My spot is to the right, called "The Sophomores."

Zen Hammocks

I've always hated selling myself, my creations, my body (though that one has been especially lucrative). But there comes a time when you just have to suck it up and say, buy this now!

Kirsten and I are going into business together with our first joint creation. It's called a Zen Hammock. Like the popular Zen Gardens, which are scaled so small they calm you by giving you the feeling of god-like largeness, Zen Hammocks are miniature versions of something that was built for relaxing in the first place. So double relaxing occurs!

But unlike Zen Gardens, these actually serve a purpose. Kind of. Well, yeah, totally. Pretty much.

You can keep your phones, or iPods, or iPhones, or keys, or whatever in them at your desk at work. If you're co-workers have sticky fingers, then this is really just a big target saying, Swipe Me. But at home, or in an office with prominent security cameras, you'll enjoy the pleasure of always knowing where those crucial items are: chilling in a hand-knit hammock.

Oh, right. They're hand-knitted by Kirsten (I'm more of the marketing and key global strategies guy). So they represent the fruit of someone's labor. Which is holistic in a sense. I've been told. But also, they are a truly unique idea because, as far as we know, nobody else has thought of this ridiculous concept.

Seriously, what's not to love:



You can pick the color, or combination of colors (stripes) you want as well as the color of frame. At the moment we have red, black, silver and white, but if you have a better idea, it'd be a good excuse for us to pick up more paint.

If none of the above pitch worked on you, let me put it this way. These Zen Hammocks are going to pay for Claire's orthodontics and college education. If you care about that sort of thing. Uncle Scott sure does. He was Kirsten's first customer. Go and do likewise.

Check them out here.

Update on: YAY!!!

Scratch that. Someone just stole my car.

It's still light outside. My neighbors across the street were sitting on their porch watching the whole thing go down. After someone peeled off in my car, they flagged down a cop and the police chased my car all the way to 6 mile and Van Dyke where they lost the jeep. But apparently the car started smoking at some point during the pursuit (not really fixed after all?) and they were able to locate the vehicle based on smell. Seriously. They sniffed it out.

YAY!!!

I've been without wheels for three weeks because I didn't have the bread to get my car fixed. Then I got some bread and paid to get it fixed and got it back yesterday! Then I realized it wasn't fixed and dropped it back off. Then they fixed it for real today and I got it back again and now I have wheels!

Yay!!!

Computer Perfection

So, if nobody else is going to say it (and I know we're all thinking it), then I will!

Are we going to pretend to not notice that Mary just made the same baby again? C'mon! Lincoln is a carbon copy of Titus, only he's red.

I know that Mary's robot-like perfection has been called into question before, but this time she's really gone to far. Yeah, she makes mothering look effortless, and we all admire her for it. But not even bothering to make a new model? Simply cloning the last one? That goes too far in my book. It's as if she's coasting on her talents now, not even trying to push the boundaries of baby-making possibilities. She's saying, "Oh yeah, that baby making thing. I got this."

Clone 1, after the red wore off.



Clone 2:



My mom thought that Titus looked sad in the delivery room because he had been bumped from baby to middle-child status. How wrong you are, mom! That look on Titus face is this: What. The. Heck. Is. Going. On? I've been duplicated!

Baseball

I finally got some footage and more pictures of Sepporah hitting in her baseball games. She is starting to take it a little more serious and that gets me excited.

I told her to get her game face on and this is what I got. I am scared just looking at her.

Clearly not happy about me constantly asking her to pose for pictures.

Sike! She loves posing for pics.

Playing shortstop.

Showing me her other talents.

Check it out Matt. Even Sepporah can hit the ball to the outfield.

Ton of Pictures of Lincoln

Sorry for the ton of pictures. I wish I knew another way to post them that wouldn't take you scrolling for an hour. These pictures are in lower quality so they are not too big.

For some reason, the way they load is actually backwards with being the first ones I loaded at the end. As a result, these are in opposite chronological order.

I hope you enjoy our new boy!

(If you missed it, make sure to check out Uncle Scott's post below this one.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TWO SPECIAL PEOPLE!!

I know that there isn't a lot of activity on the blog on the weekend but just so I don't get in trouble with you know who, I am wishing Titus and Jessica a happy birthday now. Titus has a birthday Saturday (forgive me Matthew if I am jumping ahead) and Jessica's birthday is Sunday (forgive me Christopher). I love you both and hope you have a wonderful birthday.